FirstMark Capital Closes $225M Early Stage Fund

At a time when venture capital firms are having trouble fund-raising, New York-based FirstMark Capital has managed to close FirstMark V, an oversubscribed $225 million early-stage fund.

The previous fund was $200 million and included a hit exit with Riot Games Inc., which was acquired by Tencent for $400 million in February. The previous fund also included hot companies like Lot18, which raised a $30 million third round of capital last month after just a year of selling wine online; and online curation tool Pinterest, which recently closed on $25 million from Andreessen Horowitz at a $200 million valuation. FirstMark Capital seeded both companies.

The new fund will operate under the same investment thesis–it will be the first money into companies working on the application layer of the Internet, and usually companies with a New York connection. The fund will be managed by the same team, which consists of four managing directors and five venture partners.

The firm has already made five investments out of the new fund–electronic payments start-up Greenphire Inc.; children’s clothing company Lolly Wolly Doodle; web-based newswire NewsCred Inc.; Dashlane Inc., a company that helps keep track of online passwords, credit card info and other valuable data; and video game developer Meteor Entertainment Inc.